Title: Plugin Update Not Writeable Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Plugin Update Not Writeable * Resolved Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/) * I have just updated my wordpress sites, and now I’m getting a message saying * > Download failed. Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or > is not writable.. * How do I fix this? Can I fix it in FileZilla? Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266239) * Try changing the permissions on the wp-content directory to 766. If you still have problems, try 767, 775 or 777. Once your uploads are working, change the permissions on wp-content back to 755 again and check that everything still works OK. [http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions](http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions) * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266265) * Would I set the permission to change that folder only or all files and folders inside wp-content * [Runamok81](https://wordpress.org/support/users/runamok81/) * (@runamok81) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266284) * +1 After backing up, and updating to wordpress 3.5 on IIS6. I am now receiving error message when downloading or updating plugins. * `Download failed. Destination directory for file streaming does not exist or is not writable.` * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266293) * **[@richard](https://wordpress.org/support/users/richard/)**: That folder only * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266294) * I’m on IIS too, is the problem IIS only? * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266295) * **[@esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)** Thanks * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266301) * Every time I set the permission Filezilla refreshes it but when I check it goes back to ‘xxx’ * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266303) * None of these worked 🙁 : 767, 775, 777 * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266305) * Contact your hosts. This may be a folder ownership issue. * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266311) * Ok, thanks for the help anyway. I have a backup site if anything else goes wrong… * [Runamok81](https://wordpress.org/support/users/runamok81/) * (@runamok81) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266312) * Richard, Samuel([this post](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-upgrades-fail-after-update-to-wp-35?replies=4#post-3560074)) may have provided a workaround. Give it a try and report back. * Define a new temporary folder, one that wordpress has rights too. Add this line to your wp-config.php `define('WP_TEMP_DIR','C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wordpress\tmp');` * Moderator [Samuel Wood (Otto)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/otto42/) * (@otto42) * WordPress.org Admin * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266314) * Reposting here for clarity: * When WordPress downloads a plugin ZIP file, then it has to be able to write that file somewhere. To do this, it uses the “temp” directory. * If WP detects that it cannot write files to this temp directory, then you get the error message you are now getting. WP tries to find a valid temp directory, but sometimes servers are configured poorly. * You can work around this by specifying a temp directory on your server with a place that you know WordPress is allowed to write files to. You can do this by adding this line of code into the wp-config.php file. * `define('WP_TEMP_DIR','/path/to/a/temp/dir');` * That will tell WP where to write the temporary files. * [philip.levine](https://wordpress.org/support/users/philiplevine/) * (@philiplevine) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266317) * Just to add my 2 cents to this. * I too am using IIS 7 and adding the define wp_temp_dir to the wp_config.php does resolve the issue, however, I view this as a temporary solution as I shouldn’t have to edit every since wp-config.php file on my server when this has been working so well without it. * Thread Starter Anonymous User 7377746 * (@anonymized-7377746) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266359) * **[@otto](https://wordpress.org/support/users/otto/)** does it only have to be a temp or should it direct to wp-content Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) The topic ‘Plugin Update Not Writeable’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 14 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: Anonymous User 7377746 * Last activity: [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-not-writeable/#post-3266359) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics